The most consumed protein in Ecuador is chicken, followed by pork. 28 kilos are consumed annually in the country and there is still a lot of room for growth, as Peru’s consumption is over 40 kg. “It is the most economical protein, with the easiest access and the best quality,” according to Diana Espín, executive director of the National Corporation of Poultry Growers of Ecuador (Conave).

And Carolina Donoso confirms it at home. Every two weeks, this housewife buys nine pounds of breast fillets, each pound costs $2.25 at the Sauces 9 market, and five pounds of pork at three dollars, in a cooler in Samanes.

According to Conave, the consumption of chicken meat per inhabitant in 2022 was 28 kg, pork 11 kg, and turkey 0.7 kg.

Ecuador opened markets for its chicken meat, 28 tons were exported to the Bahamas

Since 2019, the first Friday in July has been celebrated as National Chicken Meat Day, with the aim of emphasizing the benefits of this protein. This year it will be on Friday the 7th in Malecón Simón Bolívar in Guayaquil and will even include dancing, with the participation of the authorities and the poultry sector that creates more than 300,000 jobs, stimulates more than 4,500 million dollars, produces 495,000 tons of chicken meat on average annually and about 3,800 million eggs.

The sector had an average growth of 5% in chicken meat production over the last ten years, but it also had atypical years and events: pandemics and national strikes (2019 and 2022) that affected logistics and mobilization, although none of them caused stagnation of the sector as such. Now they will have to face the El Niño phenomenon, Espín believes.

“Agriculture has managed to keep prices in ranges that always go up and down. Production is extremely cyclical, so there are periods of the year when consumption increases, and this normally happens during the holidays, but when it decreases, it is obviously the effect of supply and demand, I think it remained within limits and did not increase like other products as such” , he believes.

In this context, citing the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) as a source, it said that the reference price for producers per kilogram of chicken meat is currently $0.80, while a bucket of 30 eggs in Tungurahu is $3.42, farm to producer .

The consumption of pork moves from second place to beef in the preferences of Ecuadorians

The El Niño phenomenon “would have an effect on the sector”, says Espín. The most worrisome is the amount of rain that may fall, especially the effects on the raw materials used by this sector to prepare balanced food for the birds, in this case corn. “What is logically worrying is that maize production will fall, because it means that if there was an impact on the sector, what is left or what little is there will increase its price and that obviously affects the sector. “.

In this sense, it indicates that companies are trying to secure economic resources in case these events occur in order to have an action plan if El Niño occurs. They are talking to oceanography experts from the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, so they can shed light on what’s really going on and that it’s not just speculation.

He prefers not to state the number of effects or the balance sheet as such in the sector, because he says that it is unpredictable and that no specific value can be presented; however, a specific plan is being developed, they have primarily focused on being close to the most technical information, forecasting resources, climate issues and infrastructure, in the case of sheds.

According to Conave, in Ecuador one person eats 28 kg of chicken meat per year. Photo: Courtesy

What happened to bird flu?

Contingency plans led by MAG through the Agency for the Regulation and Control of Phytosanitary Issues and Animal Health came into force with the vaccination plans. “In the last 68-75 days there has been approximately no outbreak and we hope that will continue to be the case, however, the flu problem is not a problem that can be controlled or controlled, this disease enters Ecuador through migratory birds,” says Conave executive director.

The slaughtered birds that died from the flu are about 1,200,000 laying birds, i.e. those that lay eggs.

The production of chicken in Ecuador also made it possible to export, about 28 tons went to the Bahamas. “We hope to continue with these exports and that is the goal and that one way or another we can open more doors and boost Ecuador’s economy even more with the agricultural sector.”

For National Chicken Day, this Friday, July 7, the event will take place at 4:30 pm on the Malecón Simón Bolívar. For this, they invited the schools to be part of the choreography with a theme that they occasionally use for the date, led by Diego Álvarez, better known as Don Day.